Fraser Broker Stuart Larsen’s take on 2025

Yachts and Cruises, Yachts and Cruises newsletter

February 4, 2025

Fraser Broker Stuart Larsen looks back on the past 12 months and discusses what we can expect from global yacht sales in the coming year.

“Throughout 2024, the brokerage market felt twitchy. Although I closed 4 sales for a value of over ¼ billion USD” – said Stuart – “deals seem to have become more complex and peskier”. His perceptions are in part borne out by market data.

Let’s take a look. Although the global number of UHNWI’s has increased significantly in 2024 (up by 4.7% in 2023 alone including a whopping 7.2% in the USA), global luxury sales are down 2% while the sales of expensive collectible art are down by 4%. According to Knight Frank’s 2024 Wealth Report, the global population of HNWI is expected to grow by 28% between 2023 and 2028.Yachting presents a more nuanced picture with brokerage sales of yachts over 30m up by 4% according to Marine Business World. On the other hand, SuperYacht Times reported the new build market down about 25% overall in 2024. This is not surprising remembering the glut of new builds during Covid. Two segments seem to be less affected by the downturn: the 40m to 50m segment (yachts built within the past five years recorded an 18% year-on-year increase) and the 80m plus segment. “Interestingly – added Stuart – the yachts I sold fall into those 2 categories. The buyers were new to yachting and in the younger than average age-group of 63.5 years. All but one were residents of the USA”.

What about 2025?

Global uncertainty, the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza, the restructuring of the Middle East, China’s slow down and generally slow global growth, has created an overall sense of unease although the US, yachting’s most dominant market, garners a robust outlook following the presidential elections.

Sifting through end of year reports, there is another bright spot and an opportunity. As the sale of luxury assets dropped, the sales of luxury travel driven by adventure and experiences has risen significantly. There is a definite shift from away from luxury “possessions” in favor of luxury “experiences” with travel experiences projected to become a $1 to $1.3 trillion market by 2025. According to Mastercard, “Affluent travelers contribute about 36% of the world’s spend on travel and nearly 70% of the spend on luxury travel”.

“This presents a huge opportunity for yacht sales and charter – Stuart continued -where a yacht uniquely combines together the means of travel, the destination and the luxury experience”. With numbers so clearly trending upwards, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic for consistent results in 2025.

Learn more about Stuart and his superyacht listings

Source: Fraser